Look at Microsoft Corp.'s network strategies of the early 1990s and you'll find some fascinating similarities to today's Linux movement--coincidental or not.

Microsoft put an end to Novell's domination of the LAN server market by cultivating a developer-friendly environment for Windows NT, despite Novell's overwhelming market share and solid technology.

The Linux movement is playing a similar card against other Unix platforms as customers demand it. In many cases, ports are emerging faster for Linux than for more traditional Unix platforms such as IBM Corp.'s AIX, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP-UX and Sun Microsystems' Solaris. Customers want to deploy what is working and available, and the applications are starting to drive the platform's adoption. It's a page right out the Microsoft playbook.

The similarities between Linux and Windows don't end there. Microsoft perfected the "kitchen sink" technique, bundling everything from CA (certificate authority)/PKI (public key infrastructure) products to DNS, DHCP, and index and Web servers into NT. Although this may seem commonplace now, it was rare five years ago.

Linux could play a similar card here, too. For example, though dedicated VPN (virtual private network) appliances will outperform Linux machines with the FreeS/WAN VPN package, FreeS/WAN is free and works quite well for simple situations. Will Linux's plays into these spaces hurt any corporations? Probably not--big companies like to pay big money for products. But time will tell.